Biermann, Emily
(2024)
The Millimeter Transient Sky.
Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
The heavens have a flair for the dramatic. Stars are born then die, galaxies churn, and the very fabric of the universe rapidly expands. Few objects remain steady for our telescopes. Instead, the transient sky dominates. “Transients” are a broad category of astrophysical events defined as anything that displays a sudden change in brightness. As is often the case in astrophysics, we can learn about different aspects of these events by studying the different kinds of light, or wavelengths, they emit. Although transient phenomena in optical, in-fared, and radio wavelengths are relatively well-studied, millimeter wavelengths present a gap in our knowledge. These wavelengths are particularly challenging because millimeter-sensitive instrumentation is expensive and complex. Unlike the radio regime, millimeter waves are greatly affected by the atmosphere. Large-scale cosmic microwave background, or CMB, surveys were once reserved for studying the static imprint of our early universe. However, these surveys now have the sensitivity required to join the hunt for transients, allowing us to fill the gap in time domain astrophysics.
Wide-field CMB surveys are uniquely suited to searching for transients because they observe large areas of the sky at increasingly lower noise levels. These telescopes are expected to see a variety of events occurring outside our galaxy, such as stars exploding or being ripped apart by black holes, as well as events within the Milky Way such as flaring stars. Transients are already being detected in CMB surveys like The Atacama Cosmology Telescope, known as ACT ([62] and [47]), and The South Pole Telescope ([97] and [30]). Future surveys, such as The Simons Observatory Large Aperture Telescope, or SO-LAT [105], and CMB-S4 [2], are expected to detect at least an order of magnitude more millimeter transient events than current surveys [24]. To get the most out of this science, we must start exploring this parameter space and building the means to detect millimeter transients in real-time. This dissertation provides the necessary background knowledge of this subject, explores my work on astrophysical transient detection using data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) and comments on the future of millimeter transient astronomy.
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| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
|
| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
|
| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
27 August 2024 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Defense Date: |
8 July 2024 |
| Approval Date: |
27 August 2024 |
| Submission Date: |
2 August 2024 |
| Access Restriction: |
1 year -- Restrict access to University of Pittsburgh for a period of 1 year. |
| Number of Pages: |
108 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > Physics |
| Degree: |
PhD - Doctor of Philosophy |
| Thesis Type: |
Doctoral Dissertation |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
transients, stellar flare, gamma ray burst, classical nova, cosmic microwave background |
| Date Deposited: |
27 Aug 2024 13:12 |
| Last Modified: |
27 Aug 2024 13:12 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/46818 |
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